Some Johnnies Just Can't

When Johnny can't read -- and 15% of the 36 million U.S. elementary-school children are at least two years behind in reading capability -- Johnny's parents usually blame the teachers or their techniques. Teachers often snap back that Johnny just won't try. In perhaps 2,000,000 of these cases, researchers are now discovering, neither school nor student is at fault: Johnny can't read because of a neurophysiological disorder, most often called dyslexia.

But he can be helped.

The Symptoms. While precise definitions of dyslexia vary, most experts agree that it appears to be inherited in many cases, but may also be the result of early brain injury, and that it leads to reading difficulties in children who otherwise show normal intelligence in mental tests. Dyslexics display a whole syndrome of symptoms (some of which are no cause for concern in preschool-age children, but may indicate dyslexia if they persist beyond this age). Usually they confuse spatial relationships. Horizontally, this leads, for example, to spelling first as frist, very as vrey. Vertically, it may cause mixups between u and n, b and p, R and B. Their sense of time may be confused, so that even if they hear well, they tend to transpose sounds, get sentences mixed up.

Dyslexics jumble left and right, lack the fine coordination needed in such activities as writing. Their balance is shaky; their sense of rhythm is faulty. They generally reason well but falter in shifting reasoning to symbols such as letters and numbers. Detecting the dyslexic is complicated by the fact that he is also likely to suffer from emotional problems. Although he is as bright as other kids, he becomes frustrated and angry over his poor reading, turns rebellious, seems not to care.

The Solutions. If pinpointed before his emotional problems become overwhelming, the dyslexic can readily be taught to overcome his reading problems. Techniques vary, but effective reading instruction is being given in many reading centers, including New York University's Reading Institute and the Orton Reading Center in Winston-Salem, N.C. Tutorial instruction at Columbia Teachers College clearly shows, says the college's Mrs. Marvin Sleisenger, that such children can learn if "we teach in slow motion." But Frances McGlannan, whose own son's dyslexia led her to found the Language Arts Center in Miami to help such children, puts through 70 students at a time under 18 teachers, takes about a year to enable second-graders to rejoin their public-school classmates at the proper reading level. Older children take longer to catch up.

Since the dyslexic child has faulty visual and auditory perception, Mrs. McGlannan tries to reinforce these senses by stressing touch techniques. Children make human and animal figures out of clay to get a clearer conception of spatial relationships, work with big Masonite squares and circles to get a grip on geometric symbols. They stand on one foot and hold out their arms to comprehend the ideas of leftness and rightness. They manipulate letters that have been fashioned from pipe cleaners, feel the shapes with their eyes closed as the teacher pronounces the letter's sound. The aim, says Mrs. McGlannan, is to blend sight, sound and touch in order to straighten out jumbled perceptions by "involving all the sensory pathways."

In today's specialized research, medical experts have not been aware of the educator's problems with dyslexia and educators have not been aware of the medical knowledge about it. A big step was taken two weeks ago with the formation of a national committee on dyslexia. Headed by Psychiatrist Archie A. Silver of N.Y.U.'s School of Medicine and Hospital Administrator Robert R. Roberts of Redding, Calif., it consists of physicians, psychologists and educators, who by working together can more effectively analyze and attack what promises to be a solvable medical-educational problem.

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